Rhythmic Diurnal Synthesis and Signaling of Retinoic Acid in the Rat Pineal Gland and Its Action to Rapidly Downregulate ERK Phosphorylation

Open access via Springer Compact Agreement Funding was provided by a Biological Sciences Research Council East of Scotland BioScience Doctoral Training Partnership PhD Studentship awarded to Anna Ashton. qPCR was performed in the Institute of Medical Sciences qPCR Core Facility, University of Aberdeen. Microscopy was performed in the Institute of Medical Sciences Microscopy and Histology Core Facility at the University of Aberdeen.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Vocational education and training and employment services in Malta

This country monograph is the result of a request from the European Commission (Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs) in the context of the Employment Policy Reviews launched by the latter in the future member states in 1999. According to this request, the key aim of the country monographs is to provide up-to-date, detailed information and analysis on the vocational education and training systems and structures as well as on the public and private employment services in order to support the monitoring of the Joint Assessment Papers of Employment Priorities (JAP). This analysis is considered to provide a useful input enabling the future member states and the European Commission to identify the most important needs and gaps. In particular, the analysis aims at providing: (1) an instrument to assess the progress made by the countries to increase the responsiveness of their education and training systems to labour market needs; this assessment is addresses particularly the challenges and priorities related to the development of lifelong learning; (2) a tool to assess the effectiveness of the public and private employment services to assist both young and adult unemployed people and those threatened by unemployment to enter the labour market; and (3) a basis for positioning the development trends of these systems in relation to those in EU member states. The work has been conducted by a team of national, EU and ETF experts, under the responsibility of the European Training Foundation (ETF) and with the support of the Employment Training Corporation (ETC). The method of work combined the use of desk research and field visits in the capital and also in some selected regions. The final document has been prepared by the European Training Foundation and therefore, reflects primarily an ETF viewpoint. The preparation of the monographs has also benefited from a close consultation process with representatives of the national authorities. The latter were informed about this work right from the beginning of the process and they were invited to provide their opinion on the final draft. In addition, a seminar was organised on 27 September 2002 in Brussels with the aim of presenting and discussing the documents with the national authorities of the future member states as well as with the European Commission. This monograph also reflects the outcomes of this seminar and further discussions and comments from the country. The document makes use of quantitative indicators from international institutions as well as national sources. As discussed during the 27 September meeting, it should be acknowledged that in relation to indicators used in the EU, some data are still missing, while others might refer to different realities. Therefore, figures must be interpreted with caution, taking into account that statistics should be complemented by more qualitative assessments. Further analytical work will be needed to improve the picture and in particular the positioning of developments in the country towards developments in the EU.peer-reviewe

Cyberbullying and Cyberstalking victimisation among university students: A Narrative Systematic Review

With the increasing use of information and communication technology, university students are more vulnerable to cyberbullying and cyberstalking than ever before. While prior research has mostly addressed these adverse behaviours separately, the convergence of these phenomena in the education and lives of university students suggests the need to explore them within a more holistic framework. This study presents a Narrative Systematic Review (NSR) that focuses on university students (undergraduate and postgraduate) as victims. Out of 7,518 papers screened, only 61 wereeligible for the review, resulting in a comprehensive and critical overview of the risks and protective factors associated with cyberbullying and cyberstalking among university students. The analysis of the review metadata sheds light on the factors that contribute to victims' adverseexperiences and explores best practices and intervention strategies for supporting them. The analysis revealed more research on cyberbullying rather than cyberstalking among university students. Certain risk factors have emerged as particularly relevant, such as underestimation of cyberbehaviour and risky behaviour among victims, along with considerations of gender, age, mental health, personality, and previous face-to-face victimisations. The most significant consequences include negative emotions and psychological vulnerabilities. Self-conscious behaviour and seeking support from family and friends are considered the most common protective factors. There is a need for academic institutions to engage actively in preventing cyberbullying and cyberstalking through evidence-based programs. Overall, there is a gap in our understanding of the effectiveness of policies and programs at the university level

Comparing gravitational waveform models for binary black hole mergers through a hypermodels approach

The inference of source parameters from gravitational-wave signals relies on theoretical models that describe the emitted waveform. Different model assumptions on which the computation of these models is based could lead to biases in the analysis of gravitational-wave data. In this work, we sample directly on four state-of-the-art binary black hole waveform models from different families, in order to investigate these systematic biases from the 13 heaviest gravitational-wave sources with moderate to high signal-to-noise ratios in the third Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog (GWTC- 3). All models include spin-precession as well as higher-order modes. Using the "hypermodels" technique, we treat the waveform models as one of the sampled parameters, therefore directly getting the odds ratio of one waveform model over another from a single parameter estimation run. From the joint odds ratio over all 13 sources, we find the model NRSur7dq4 to be favoured over SEOBNRv4PHM, with an odds ratio of 29.43; IMRPhenomXPHM and IMRPhenomTPHM have an odds ratio, respectively, of 4.70 and 5.09 over SEOBNRv4PHM. However, this result is mainly determined by three events that show a strong preference for some of the models and that are all affected by possible data quality issues. If we do not consider these potentially problematic events, the odds ratio do not exhibit a significant preference for any of the models. Although further work studying a larger set of signals will be needed for robust quantitative results, the presented method highlights one possible avenue for future waveform model development

Retinoic Acid Signalling in the Pineal Gland Is Conserved across Mammalian Species and Its Transcriptional Activity Is Inhibited by Melatonin

This article belongs to the Collection Functions of Nuclear Receptors Acknowledgments We thank David Hazlerigg for providing the MSM mice. qPCR was performed with the help of the Institute of Medical Sciences qPCR Core Facility at the University of Aberdeen.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Do Surgical Trials Meet the Scientific Standards for Clinical Trials?

Unlike medications, the dissemination of surgical procedures into practice is not regulated. Before marketing, pharmaceutical products are required to be shown safe and efficacious in comparative clinical trials that use bias-reducing strategies designed to reduce the distortion of estimates of treatment effect by predispositions toward the investigational intervention or control. Unless an investigational device is involved, the corresponding process for surgical innovations is usually unregulated and therefore may not be based on adequate evidence. Given these differences, we sought to evaluate the state of clinical research on invasive procedures. We conducted a systematic review of publications from 1999 through 2008, which reported the results of studies evaluating the effects of invasive therapeutic procedures, focusing on trials that appeared to influence practice. Our objective was to determine what proportion of studies evaluating surgical procedures use a comparative clinical trial design and methods to control bias. This article reports our results and raises concerns about the methodologic, and therefore the ethical, quality of clinical research used to justify the implementation of surgical procedures into practice

Plasma and CSF NfL are differentially associated with biomarker evidence of neurodegeneration in a community-based sample of 70-year-olds.

Neurofilament light protein (NfL) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma (P) are suggested to be interchangeable markers of neurodegeneration. However, evidence is scarce from community-based samples. NfL was examined in a small-scale sample of 287 individuals from the Gothenburg H70 Birth cohort 1944 study, using linear models in relation to CSF and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) biomarker evidence of neurodegeneration. CSF-NfL and P-NfL present distinct associations with biomarker evidence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology and neurodegeneration. P-NfL was associated with several markers that are characteristic of AD, including smaller hippocampal volumes, amyloid beta (Aβ)42, Aβ42/40, and Aβ42/t-tau (total tau). CSF-NfL demonstrated associations with measures of synaptic and neurodegeneration, including t-tau, phosphorylated tau (p-tau), and neurogranin. Our findings suggest that P-NfL and CSF-NfL may exert different effects on markers of neurodegeneration in a small-scale community-based sample of 70-year-olds

Association of Chronic Kidney Disease With Plasma NfL and Other Biomarkers of Neurodegeneration: The H70 Birth Cohort Study in Gothenburg

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Studies associate chronic kidney disease (CKD) with neurodegeneration. This study investigated the relation between kidney function, blood, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and structural brain MRI markers of neurodegeneration, in a sample including individuals with and without CKD. METHODS: Participants from the Gothenburg H70 Birth Cohort Study, with data on plasma-neurofilament light (P-NfL), estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and structural brain MRI were included. Participants were invited to also have CSF collected. The primary endpoint of the present study was to determine any association between CKD and P-NfL. Secondary endpoints included cross-sectional associations between CKD, eGFR and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)- and MRI-derived markers of neurodegeneration and Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology (MRI: cortical thickness, hippocampal volume, lateral ventricle volume, white matter lesion volume; CSF: β-amyloid (Aβ) 42, Aβ42/40, Aβ42/p-tau, t-tau, p-tau, NfL). Participants with P-NfL and eGFR at baseline were re-examined on eGFR, 5.5 (5.3; 6.1) years (median; IQR) after the first visit, and the predictive value of P-NfL levels on incident CKD was estimated longitudinally, using a Cox proportional hazards model. RESULTS: We included 744 participants, 668 without CKD (Age 71 (70; 71) years, 50% males) and 76 with CKD (age 71 (70;71) years, 39% males). Biomarkers from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were analysed in 313 participants. 558 individuals returned for a re-examination of eGFR (75% response rate, age 76 (76; 77), 48% males, 76 new cases of CKD). Participants with CKD had higher P-NfL levels than those with normal kidney function (median; 18.8 versus 14.0 pg/mL, p<0.001), while MRI and CSF markers were similar between the groups. P-NfL was independently associated with CKD after adjustment for confounding variables, including hypertension and diabetes (OR; 3.231, p<0.001), in a logistic regression model. eGFR, and CSF Aβ 42/40: R=0.23, p=0.004 correlated in participants with Aβ42 pathology. P-NfL levels in the highest quartile were associated with incident CKD at follow-up (HR; 2.08 (1.14: 4.50)). DISCUSSION: In a community-based cohort of 70-year olds, P-NfL was associated with both prevalent and incident CKD, while CSF and/or imaging measures did not differ by CKD status. Participants with CKD and dementia presented similar levels of P-NfL

Phytoplankton yield changes after enrichment in microcosm experiments: applications for predicting progressive eutrophication in a mesotrophic lake, South Africa

Established microcosms containing surface water from the mesotrophic Lake Mokolo were subjected to enrichment of different concentrations with phosphorus. The microcosms were sampled through a 20 day succession period to determine the net effects of increased concentrations of phosphorus in the water column on the phytoplankton community structure during the winter and summer seasons. A significant increase in chlorophyll a (chl-a) was observed when treatments of 30, 40 and 60 μg L-1 P were compared to the controls. On day zero in both the winter and summer microcosm experiments, all four phosphorus treatments had similar species diversity of phytoplankton of the specific seasoned tested (winter: Margalef index = 223; summer: Margalef index = 347). However, 13 days after the addition of 40 and 60 μg L-1 P, the phytoplankton community exhibited a strikingly different species richness (winter: Margalef index = 123; summer: Margalef index = 114). In the winter microcosm experiments, the green alga Scenedesmus armatus dominated the phytoplankton composition at enrichment levels of 40 and 60 μg L-1 P up to day 20. The biovolume of the dinophyceae Ceratium hirundinella declined rapidly after the addition of 40 μg L-1 P in the different summer microcosms. In the summer microcosms, Spondylosium secedens and Microcystis aeruginosa dominated the 40 and 60 μg L-1 P microcosm enrichment experiments.http://www.academicjournals.org/AJBam2013mn201

Marine-inspired enzymatic mineralization of dairy-derived whey protein isolate (WPI) hydrogels for bone tissue regeneration

Whey protein isolate (WPI) is a by-product from the production of cheese and Greek yoghurt comprising β-lactoglobulin (β-lg) (75%). Hydrogels can be produced from WPI solutions through heating; hydrogels can be sterilized by autoclaving. WPI hydrogels have shown cytocompatibility and ability to enhance proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of bone-forming cells. Hence, they have promise in the area of bone tissue regeneration. In contrast to commonly used ceramic minerals for bone regeneration, a major advantage of hydrogels is the ease of their modification by incorporating biologically active substances such as enzymes. Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) is the main inorganic component of the exoskeletons of marine invertebrates. Two polymorphs of CaCO3, calcite and aragonite, have shown the ability to promote bone regeneration. Other authors have reported that the addition of magnesium to inorganic phases has a beneficial effect on bone-forming cell growth. In this study, we employed a biomimetic, marine-inspired approach to mineralize WPI hydrogels with an inorganic phase consisting of CaCO3 (mainly calcite) and CaCO3 enriched with magnesium using the calcifying enzyme urease. The novelty of this study lies in both the enzymatic mineralization of WPI hydrogels and enrichment of the mineral with magnesium. Calcium was incorporated into the mineral formed to a greater extent than magnesium. Increasing the concentration of magnesium in the mineralization medium led to a reduction in the amount and crystallinity of the mineral formed. Biological studies revealed that mineralized and unmineralized hydrogels were not cytotoxic and promoted cell viability to comparable extents (approximately 74% of standard tissue culture polystyrene). The presence of magnesium in the mineral formed had no adverse effect on cell viability. In short, WPI hydrogels, both unmineralized and mineralized with CaCO3 and magnesium-enriched CaCO3, show potential as biomaterials for bone regeneration